The VKS Collaboration

An experimental dynamo using liquid sodium

The VKS experiment (Von Karman Sodium) has been designed to achieve magnetic field self generation in a conducting liquid. It is a joint experiment run at CEA Cadarache as a collaboration between physicists based at CEA Saclay - SPEC, ENS Paris - LPS and ENS Lyon - LP. The flow is a von-Karman type flow, where liquid sodium is stirred by the counter-rotation of two bladded disk in a cylinder. A first version of the experiment was run between 1999 and 2002 (VKS1) and was significantly improved ( VKS2 runs from 2005). Self generation of magnetic field in a turbulent flow was first achieved in September 2006.

Scientific as well as broad-audience publications can be downloaded from this web-site.
Data from 2009 on are made avalaible to the scientific community (refer to the data section).
Photos of the experimental device can be viewed in the media section.